Valley: Kashmiri wazas stir Valley pot with 10 pm wazwan deadline, politics takes back seat | India News
SRINAGAR: At the end of the marriage season, wedding chefs, called wazas in Kashmir, have created a storm in the Valley by announcing that they will stop serving wazwan, the traditional multi-course Kashmiri meal, after 10 pm in an attempt to curb increasingly late-night wedding feasts. The decision is being widely debated on social media in Kashmir and politics, it appears, has taken a backseat for the moment.The dinner deadline will take effect from the next marriage season, which begins in May, according to All Kashmir Waza Association president Ghulam Nabi Baba. Under the new proposed arrangement, Baba said lunch wazwan would be served at 2 pm and dinner at around 10 pm. He said members who fail to follow the association’s rules would be removed.Baba said the decision was taken at an association meeting at Rajouri Kadal, in Srinagar’s old city, on Wednesday in response to the growing trend of delayed groom arrivals at wedding venues. Some grooms, he said, reach the bride’s home as late as 3 or 4 am, when they should be having a feast much before 10 pm.“From next season, starting in May, this will not be tolerated,” Baba told TOI. With the changing security situation in the Valley, late-night weddings have become the norm, but the wazas are not happy about it.They have their reasons. Baba said serving wazwan past midnight creates problems as younger people are reluctant to join the profession, presuming it more demanding, while labourers hired for the day are unwilling to work through the night after remaining on duty for long hours.Baba said the timing decision would be implemented through the association, which is 60 years old and has chefs from across the Valley as members. “Our association is registered and has at least 40,000 members,” he said. “We will introduce an agreement that the groom’s or bride’s family hiring us will have to sign,” he said.In South Kashmir, Nazir Ahmad Waza said the delays were affecting the livelihoods of chefs and their ability to manage bookings. “The lack of fixed timings is affecting our business. We are unable to commit to dates due to delays. The delays are hitting everyone hard — customers and guests who come to enjoy the feast,” he said.The association’s announcement has prompted wider social media debate. “I have a request for the Waza Association. Please do not accept processed spices, cockscomb, garlic paste, colourants or powdered milk. Give us the original wazwan we once cherished and do not make more than seven dishes,” reads a post on Facebook.
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“Restricting the timing of wazwan functions and ensuring that they do not continue beyond reasonable hours is certainly a need of society… But there is another equally important issue: Who is monitoring the rates charged by wazas?” read another post.One social media post accusing them of experimenting with more mutton dishes and making a marriage feast a costly affair shows mutton dishes prepared in grenade and AK-47 shapes in response to Baba’s deadline statement. Baba said the association will encourage its members to follow the traditional seven-course meal.
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